Thursday, January 17, 2008

Done At Last!

I have been knitting a scarf—the Ruffle Scarf (Amanda Brown—in Scarf Style) since forever.. OK-- just since mid November. It's finished now—at 80 or so inches.. (more than 6 feet long, but not 7!)

2 meters, almost precisely, on my meter stick--thought the finished length was determined by the yarn—not by the meter stick.

I don't own a yard stick, I own a meter stick that is notated in inches.. (OK, it has cm, and mm marks too, but I still tend to use the inches.)--It's not my Yard stick--it is, correctly called my meter stick(on which i mostly measure inches and yards!)

I uses every inch of 4 skeins of Mode Dea Bamboo--(55% bamboo rayon/45%wool) 2 each of the Bamboo and Celery color ways. I really like this yarn. Soft, nice hand, nice colors.

In the same time, I've knit 3 hats, a shawl, a sweater for an American Doll, a half dozen wash clothes, some swatches.. LOTS of knitting.

I do it time and time again.. I SWEAR I will never knit another scarf—and some how, one wiggles it way into my heart, and I start again.

I HATE knitting scarves.. What every novelty the pattern might have, it's gone long before the scarf is half finished.. and then it's just tedium.

I know it and I am not about to embark on another scarf.. but I am torn.

A Knitter/an Artist I know/know of is involved in a project and needs help.. she is doing an installation project (Installation project =Artist short hand for acts of insanity)

Part of the project involves knitting a mile of, for all intent and purposed,what is a scarf. That is 5280 feet of scarf. (I grow weary at 3 feet, but using hold out and make at least 6 feet.. (that would be 5274 short!)

She has some helpers-- 25, I think, at last count—Do the math..5280 feet/25 knitters=211 feet of scarf per helper. (that is not help, that is a commitment-- for me, that kind of commitment =mental health institutes sort of commitment!)

But like all artist, she is slightly insane (and quite happy about it) She has hundreds of skeins of yarn, and few helpers, to knit, not 6 or 8 feet of scarf, but hundreds of feet of scarf.. (which of course will need to be sewn or grafted together.. and (Oh, did I forget to mention this?) and embellished.

Many of us have been following the Yarn Harlots' adventures with little leaves. (little thing, lovely little things.) but Robyn, is knitting by the mile.

Well, at some point, as the yards and meters of knitting arrive, I might commit to joining them into the mile long piece for the installation (My compulsive behavior runs to persnickety details, (like grafting) not to Miles of knitting.

But in the meanwhile, even if you, too, have no intention of knitting part of mile for the project, do read about it, and be sure to check out today's entry on her blog, and watch the You Tube clip..You might not be moved to working a couple of hundred feet of knitting, but you'll have a smile on your face!